A Magpie is a bird almost too exotic to be native. As big as a crow, this graphically black and white bird has shimmering metallic turquoise on the wings and tail. Over the head is a solid black hood, there’s much white in the middle, and behind is that incredibly long graduated tail, as long as the bird itself. In the Magpie mating dance, that tail is swept around like a matador’s cape.
     Exotic though they may appear, Magpies have been on our continent for thousands of years. There are Magpies worldwide, and there are two kinds here: Black-billed and Yellow-billed. These may have begun as a single species that got divided by the elevation of the Sierra Nevada. This theory calls forth a wonderful image: a mountain range rising up and sorting out the Magpies.
     Once the dust settled, Yellow-billed
Magpies would have found themselves crowded on the western side of the mountain, squeezed along the California coast, where they evolved to be somewhat smaller and much more rare. The larger Black-billed Magpies live east of the Sierra Nevada and all across the north and west.
     Magpies loathe heat and humidity, and tend to be found only where it’s cool and dry. They are non-migratory but fond of wandering—in days of old they followed Indians hunting bison, to live off hunting-party scraps.
     When it comes to food, Magpies are omnivorous and opportunistic. Every bit as clever as their corvid cousins, they are careful observers of predators and other Magpies, hoping to gain information about food. Sometimes a flock works together like a team of pickpockets, harassing and distracting a predator while one of them sneaks in and steals away the food.
     Magpies are unusual in that they’re protected birds in the U.S. but not in Canada, and many Canadian ranchers shoot Magpies on sight, due no doubt to the bird’s complex relationship with cattle. Magpies do eat ticks and so are tolerated by deer, elk, and cattle to alight and feed on the ticks they find. But if an animal is bleeding, the birds may peck at the blood instead of the ticks, an innocent mistake perhaps, but one that can cause pain. Recently branded or dehorned cattle can suffer from proximity to Magpies, which may explain why the birds are often disliked.
     Popular or not, Magpies are exceedingly interesting. These large unusual birds build large unusual nests with domes over the top made of twigs. Males construct the exterior, while females concentrate on interior design, lining a mud cup with grass. While the female is sitting on the eggs, the male bird feeds her; when the eggs hatch, he feeds them all.
     Magpies do something called “tree-top sitting,” a lazy version of territorial display equivalent to song in other birds. The Magpie occupies the top of a tree for an extended period, with its white parts fluffed up. This turns it into an easily visible white object with two dark ends, an intimidating display accomplished without much effort.
     Magpies hold funerals! The flock will converge around a Magpie corpse for as long as 15 minutes. First they gather nearby and call, then alight beside the body one by one. Sometimes food is shared in the vicinity, and then, at some secret signal, the mourners fall silent and fly away.
     There seems to be no end to what we have in common with certain of our feathered friends.

I learned about Magpies at Birds of North America Online, and from David Allen Sibley’s Guide to Birds..